Contempt
by Iliya Moroumetz
Summary: A short introspective look at Megumi Takani as she visits the Kamiya dojo to bring Kaoru to her senses...


[Warhammer, in disguise as a delivery man in Tokyo, walks past the Kamiya Dojo.]  
  
WH: Whether you are on the giving or receiving end of spite, someone suffers.  
  
TWHammer presents:   
  
Contempt   
  
A Rurouni Kenshin work of fanfiction.  
  
Disclaimer: All characters, locations, and what not belong to their   
respective owners, not I.   
  
*****  
  
  
Such a pitiful sight.   
  
I had a feeling that Ken-san would go to Kyoto. Whether it was his past, his own choice, or the influence of Battousai, Ken-san left Tokyo under the cover of night. It seemed... appropriate. Though I did not wish him to leave, I could not stop him, nor would I. He helped me find the way to make a choice correctly, for both of us know all too well the results of bad choices. Henceforth, I must honor his choice and allow him to go. And in the end, doing us all a favor though more likely than not the rest of us would think otherwise.   
  
Now, here I stand, at the entrance to the Tanuki-musume's room. I had   
overheard that she had not left her room for a good while and had done   
nothing but lie in her bed. Somehow, I am not surprised. This little girl has often boasted how she's master of her precious little buudo. If that be the case, what master spends all her time crying like a baby because she can't have what she wants?   
  
Despite Tae-san's and the little waif of an assistant's insistence that I stop, I do not. This overgrown child has brought her own misery upon   
herself. She can do something about it, but will not. Disgust doesn't even begin to describe how I feel. How could Ken-san possibly have hold any affection for this shell of a little girl?   
  
As expected, my words tear into her pride and she continues to act as if she was the one that was wronged. Such a selfish little thing. My words continue to beat at her like an angry parent, scolding a child. I even go so far as to show her the medicine case that I brought, saying that when Ken-san uses it, he'll think of someone who truly cares about him...   
  
...like me. Yes. It is selfish and arrogant of me to think that, but I hold no shame in holding affection for the man once known as Battousai.   
  
Yes. Ken-san did save my life.   
  
Yes. Ken-san brought me out of a self-created abyss.   
  
Yet, I give my heart to the Rurouni not because of gratitude, but of sincere love and affection. Gratitude can never be the reason one could love another. The way I see it, love is something that is grown slowly, nurtured with kindness and patience, held in check by trial and error, tempered with trust and understanding, and made immovable with sincerity and forgiveness.   
  
There's so much more I could say, but do not. I care about him enough to let him do as he sees fit, because he and I were witnesses of the brutality of man's inhumanity to one another. He would gladly give his life to stop another blood bath that took both of our lives. He is the hero that inspires me to continue looking after my patients.   
  
My ire is stirred when the tanuki has the unmitigated gall to claim that my love for him stretches only so far.   
  
I raise my hand and strike.   
  
She blocks it with her other hand and boasts again of her so-called prowess, in spite of her condition.   
  
I take advantage of her arrogance and use my other hand to show her   
otherwise. Yet, for a reason beyond myself, I stop. Maybe because there's something in her that I at one time saw in myself.   
  
Do not mistake me, tanuki-musume. Should my hand EVER raise again against you... do not expect it to stop.   
  
I am no master of any sort of melee combat, but one does not need a sword or a fist to make another human being suffer.   
  
I now leave you, tanuki, to your own devices. I know that Yahiko intends to go and I will give him the medicine case so he can deliver it to Ken-san.   
  
As I leave your shoddy dojo, I can only hope that you will make the right decisions. Or else you be everything that I said you were...   
  
...like I was.   
  
A slave to my own guilt for doing nothing.   
  
The End  
  
[Warhammer sits silently as Megumi passes him by without a glance.]  
  
WH: Am I biased or what? I consider it a rarity when I write a fic as one sided as this one. Maybe it shows my progressive and inevitable digression towards becoming an untalented hack. Oh wait, too late. :p  
  
This fic originally came from a short challenge on one of the many mailing lists I am on. All we had to do was choose a moment from RK and novelize it... sorta. Yes, this two-page fic is the result. I think I'll write something else RK related another time.   
  
And as much as it's going to get me flamed for this, I feel the same way Megumi did when Kaoru was moping around after Kenshin left. But then again, I never really did care for her in the first place. And when Watsuki wrote an entire plot line about how she just wanted to meet him again, going ALL the way to Kyoto, just to get Kenshin in eyesight... well, suffice it to say that I was quite frustrated.  
  
This fic is also partly helping me trying to write another one, which would more likely than not rile a lot of fans just because it's not kenshinxkaoru. It's only a guess, but you never know with some people.   
  
Anyway, I guess there was supposed to be some sort of moral like in Aesop's fables and the rest of my fics... but then again, I'm far from a brilliant writer that would be able to integrate a thought provoking moral. Where the reader is left wondering how he or she could change their life for the better. Guess it's not my day.  
  
Let us not forget that Rurouni Kenshin and everything that's related to it belongs to JUMP comics and Watsuki-sensei.  
  
C&C is requested and always appreciated. Know a way to make this fic or any other fic of mine better? Let me know, asap...please?  
  
[Warhammer picks up his fake cargo and heads towards another fake location.] 


End file.
